ATMOS/ATLAS 3 infrared profile measurements of clouds in the tropical and subtropical upper troposphere

Vertical profiles of infrared cirrus extinction have been derived from tropical and subtropical upper tropospheric solar occultation spectra. The measurements were recorded by the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) Fourier transform spectrometer during the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences (ATLAS) 3 shuttle flight in November 1994. The presence of large numbers of small ice crystals is inferred from the appearance of broad extinction features in the 8-12 mu m region. These features were observed near the tropopause and at lower altitudes. Vertical profiles of the ice extinction (km(-1)) in microwindows at 831, 957, and 1204 cm(-1) have been retrieved from the spectra and analyzed with a model for randomly oriented spheroidal ice crystals. An area-equivalent spherical radius of 6 mu m is estimated from the smallest ice crystals observed in the 8-12 mu m region. Direct penetration of clouds into the lower stratosphere is inferred from observations of cloud extinction extending from the upper troposphere to 50 mbar (20 km altitude). Cloud extinction between 3 and 5 mu m shows very little wavelength dependence, at least for the cases observed by the ATMOS instrument in the tropics and subtropics during ATLAS 3. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.